January 19, 2006

Yes, I know that by even touching on this subject I'm only taking the bait, playing into a crass ploy to distract attention from much more important issues, etc. etc. etc. I know that, really. But this whole absurdist little play over Venezuela's coat-of-arms is really a provocation too far.

Just to recap: some weeks ago, Chavez mentioned in passing that his youngest daughter, the adorable 9-year old Rosinés, had asked him why the horse on Venezuela's official coat-of-arms is shown headed to the right with its head turned backwards, and suggested it would be better for it to be pictured galloping to the left. Kids can be so cute! As for dad mentioning it to a national audience, well, we've gotten used to these kinds of folkloric digressions in Chavez's speeches. They're usually mostly harmless, and by now we just tune them out.

But Tuesday this idiotic little saga took a totally bizarre turn when the all-chavista National Assembly met for the first time and, in its first decision, actually voted to adopt Rosinés's suggestion, officially changing the coat of arms to conform to her cute little idea. I know, it seems made up, but they really did it!

There's soooooo much that's soooooooo fundamentally fucked up about this whole thing it's hard to know where to start. The episode speaks volumes about the debasement of Venezuela's institutions in the Chavez era, about the increasingly unrestrained cult-of-personality around the guy, and just - God, how to even express it - just the wholesale surrender of common sense in the Chavez movement, the fantastical extent of his followers' determinition to debase themselves to prove their allegiance.

A few things to note:

Apparently even mentioning Rosinés gently in an oppo newspaper is not ok, but having this 9 year old kid dictate policy is peachy.

It's now clear that the all-chavista National Assembly is determined to turn this legislative session into a kind of brown-nosing olympics, a contest between deputies trying to outdo each other in showing just how far they're willing to push the envelope to prove their unswerving adherence to anything Chavez - or, hell, even his kids - say.

The National Symbols - the emblems of National Unity - are again used to divide Venezuelans, to rub dissenters' noses in it, to flout the utter absence of restraints on presidential whims

I just don't understand how episodes like this one can fail to set off alarm bells for first-world lefties, at least those endowed with a modicum of common sense. Granted, we've seen a lot of barely believable lows over the last seven years, but the day the president's 9 year old started making national policy...man, this has to be one of the lowest...